Unwritten!: Spring Has Sprung!

It's here! In Piedmont North Carolina, our pear, cherry, and plum trees have bloomed and are now filled with green leaves, the daffodils have come and gone, our Yellow Bell (Forsythia) bushes are in full bloom, and my Johnny Jump Ups are happily springing up everywhere in my garden! I love this time of year. However, with it comes that greenish-yellow powdery pollen that covers our cars . . . and everything else outside . . . bringing with it all the results of allergies ~~ sniffling, sneezing, coughing, stuffiness, and a desire to wash our cars daily, to no avail, as they will be covered with pollen again before the day is done. However, without pollen, we would not have the beautiful flowers and trees ~~ so it's a great trade off!

Since my last post, my computer totally went "poof" ~~ it became infected with some terrible disease that computers can catch, and would not even load Windows ~~ yikes! So it spent what felt like a month at the Puter Doctor, and has just now safely arrived back home . . . minus all of my document files and pictures, :(. How many times was I told that I must back up my computer? Did I listen, even once? NO! Admittedly, I am not very computer literate, and the sound of an "External Hard Drive" was cumbersome, sounding like I would need an entire second desk just to contain it; little did I know, one can be had that isn't much larger than the average cell phone today! So, yes, I now have a back up system, so hopefully I will never lose all of my cherished documents and pictures again. As I type, I have reinstalled my camera's software and am downloading all the pictures contained on my cameras memory card . . . and realizing there are 522 pics I'm "recovering," ~~ thankfully I'm no better at cleaning up my camera's storage device than I am at backing up my computer!

As for my art, I've been busy creating several pieces, but have realized that I forgot to take pics of a couple of them ~~ mixed media pieces done on canvases, and two cigar boxes. The canvases were gifts already given to good homes, and I've taken the cigar boxes to work where I will attempt to remember to take my camera and get pics of them to post later.

I think I have completed my Lemon Lady collage piece! I was told how great decorative napkins can be to use in collaging, and viola!

The proportion of Lady Lemon's head is a bit too large, but I kinda like that; to me, it says, she's confident that she can, and will, overcome all the lemons that creep into her life!

Most recently, I have been working on a piece that I'm calling "Homespun Nostalgic Loveliness!" I have wanted to do an "inchy" piece (or what I call an inchy piece, where various sizes of squares and rectangles are collaged on a board) ever since I saw one done by The Great Tim Holtz at last year's Creative Escape. I believe he also has one, or more, pictured on his website, if my memory serves me correctly. I have used a color scheme consisting of red, turquoise, and yellow ochre on a background board painted with a good mixture of off white, black and brown. Then I have used various papers, Tim Holtz Grungepaper, also some of his Grunge Board Elements, and his plastic Fragments adhered to most of the pieces. It's not complete, but here is what it's looking like currently.

I still have to distress and adhere the three flourishes, and I feel the heart needs an embellishment at its center ~~ perhaps a watch face! It's difficult to see in this picture, but there are 3 watch pieces adhered to various fragments already. Yes, I love Tim Holtz Anything!!!

And here is my photographic helper!

While he is a great helper, he doesn't photograph very well. However, he's the love of my life . . . or one of the largest ones! He's a 3-yr-old black lab, and Mama's Boy.

And how can I forget my best news! A beautiful lady in Texas, whom has a heart of gold, requested that I create a Mermaid for her . . . her only suggestion was that she have brown hair and eyes. Miranda (the Mermaid) was a true pleasure to create. I added gold and copper flakes to her ~~ something I haven't done with previous Mermaids, and something my DH feels makes her a bit "too overdone." Poo on him! I like how it turned out, and hope her new owner will also.